Walt Disney's RM-1 Lunar Craft

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We interupt this program for an important news news bulletin: FLASH: The model RM-1 FLIES...a flight test was conducted earlyer this afternoon and the craft flew successfully. Althoug a slight misshap took place when the nose weight was removed for research purposes and the ship went unstable and landed on it's side resulting in minor deformation of several fuel tanks. The damage was not serious enugh to prevent another flight after the weight ballast had been replaced proving in another stable flight. That is all...we return you now to your regular programming.

Photos and video will be dalayed untill I can get someone to do that for me, I do not have my own set up. Sorry.
 
kpklein said:
We interupt this program for an important news news bulletin: FLASH: The model RM-1 FLIES...a flight test was conducted earlyer this afternoon and the craft flew successfully. Althoug a slight misshap took place when the nose weight was removed for research purposes and the ship went unstable and landed on it's side resulting in minor deformation of several fuel tanks. The damage was not serious enugh to prevent another flight after the weight ballast had been replaced proving in another stable flight. That is all...we return you now to your regular programming.

Photos and video will be dalayed untill I can get someone to do that for me, I do not have my own set up. Sorry.
Click to expand...

Wow! Kpklein, that sounds great. Congratulations! It sounds like you had 3 flights. How much nose weight do you use? Do you put covers on the tanks? What size motor did you use and how high did you get? I would love to hear more details.

I suspect that I will wait to launch with my club and that will be in January. I have a feeling that you used less nose weight than I did. I put the nose weight in place today with quite a bit of epxoy and a small wooden block to attach a screw eye. I weighed the nose cone before and after and found that in addition to 6 ounces of lead I put in about 1.17 ounces of epoxy and wooden block.

IMG_2213.jpgIMG_2217.jpg
 
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Aerostadt, from looking at your added weight I do'nt think you will have any problem with atability, I used one .451 cal. round ball, my model is not very large. I gave it a swing test and it went around equaly well forward or reverse, so I assumed that if it gets enugh forward speed at first it will be stable, so I think mine might be just in the neutral range.

It has open tubes but I want to see what it will do if they are coverd. It did get three flights, the second one was the aerial acrobatic one. The motor is a BP end burner of my oun design, 5/8" I.D., 2.5" long motor tube. I need to add a little more delay to it though, it poped the shute a little early. We won't mention that the igniter was a fuse.:wink:

Hope you have as good or better luck with your model.
 
Thanks for the info', kpklein. I made some more progress. I attached a fishing tackle leader and shock cord to the engine mount. I am thinking that there is not much space in my model for a chute, etc., and I will have the leader near to the ejection charge. Since there is little room in this model, I will use a mylar chute. I scored the inside of the QT main frame with rough sandpaper and the engine mount is now attached within the tube with epoxy. I put on the first coat of Rust-oleum 2X flat white primer today. The outside weather here is not the greatest for painting. The forward long antenna boom is not glued in place, yet.


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kpklein said:
Here she is in action. https://youtu.be/eUT1JpoXjvs
Click to expand...

Kpklein, that is terrific! If I'm not mistaken, it looks like the antenna had some harpoon action on the ground. Thanks for the video! Your BP motors work very good. Any idea if the motor is a C, D, or E? I think my model is heavier, so I will need an E or F. In this space race you have won. Nevertheless, I will have a few more posts. I have decals from Sticker Shock to apply after I put on more paint. BTW what color did you paint the model?
 
Thanks, Aerostadt. The motor is probably in the A or low B range. I sprayed the model with gray Plasticoat. My plan now is to cover the tanks top and bottom and see if it will still fly, might need a little more weight in the nose. Yes, the reactor boom did stick into the ground.
 
Slick. I have a Glencoe that is destined for a PMC, the idea of using the tanks as tube fins is brilliant. Nice flight too!
 
Looking damn good!!! Can't wait to see it fly. :D I closed the ends of the tanks on mine. Now if the weather would warm up I could take it out for a spin, it's been below zero for the highs the past few days.
 
I'd very much like to see the difference in performance. Video please!


Richard
 
If it flies I will post a video, if it crapps out, there will only be a discription. Hoping for warmer day.
 
I went back and looked again at my RocSim for pods (no tube-fins) and it doesn't make sense. It has the center of pressure way too far forward. I started to close off the pods so they would like look tanks and it made no difference for stability, so I quit after 3 tank closures. KP, I ,too, would like to know how your project works. The nice thing about your model is that it is light and relatively low-powered, so you can safely try this modification. In contrast my model grew in weight and power. I tend to think that your model will not fly well with the "closed" tanks. It will just be too much drag, but the final proof is always in the flying. Your current model proves that a card stock model like this or a light model will fly well.
 
Well....it will do end over end flips in the air, but not fly. Found that out yesterday. The tube fins will not work if ends are closed, but had to find out anyway. The model has been dissasembled and scrapped except for the nosecone and paracute.

The video footage has been destroyed by order of high command so as to avoid embarrasment to the state.
 
Probibly needed more rocks in the the nose, way more. Too bad it was destroyed, I saw it as an extended flying saucer so should be workable. The sim software not being up to the task the good old swing test is applicable. As it stands the tank covers could be used for display and removed before flight.


Richard
 
It is'nt any kind of loss, it was all experiment and the model was not made to last anyway.
 
sandman said:
I have the "Man in Space" on DVD.

In the show the navigator sticks his head up into the dome and checks their position with a sextant.

So...it's clear.

Look at this video,

https://video.search.yahoo.com/vide...sigr=11ac1a3a7&sigt=119c29hcf&age=0&b=61&tt=b

At about 1:26. The dome is clear.

And a ton of close up details of the model.
Click to expand...

LOL! This is awesome! Great retro vision of a recon voyage to the moon. Only 14 years later, Apollo 8 would do a fly by and the technical details were so different! The next two decades moved so quickly, and the four after that have crawled...

I guess it shows the folly of predicting the future...
 
I finally had the opportunity to launch this model at our club NAR competition. I entered the model in the Concept Contest. It will be a while before I hear the results. There was quite a bit of competition. One person had a Flash Gordon design and another person had a winged model that looked like the Chesley Bonestell Moonship. My model flew well on a F30-6FJ (single use) especially considering the high winds, probably around 15 mph. The delay charge was a little too long, but there was no zipper. Unfortunately, the forward spike broke in two places upon landing. One break was at the nose attach point and the other break was just behind the red radiation shield. It is repairable, but the damage will cost some competition points. Otherwise, there was no damage. The tubes were fine. It does look like there was some wind-cocking, but also we tilted the model into the wind.

IMG_2413.jpgIMG_2414.jpg
 
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Congratulations Aerostadt!!! Too bad about the nose boom, but it will fly higher without it. I used a bamboo stick for mine toreduce the possibility of breaking, soft ground helps too. Video???
 
I put a screw-eye into the nose and tied a kevlar to it and the parachute, so that the nose would be suspended by the parachute. The main body was attached to the nose cone. I flew this the first day of Hellfire-21 and it worked. There was no damage to the nose or elsewhere. The F30-6 has a delay time that is too long for this much nose weight. Nevertheless, the screw-eye did not pull out. I pre-drilled the hole for the screw-eye and put thin CA into the hole before screwing in the screw-eye.

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